The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers (19) Part Two
Some people often mention being busy with work, having many issues with their family, or an unsuitable environment as excuses for not doing their duties and not participating in church life. However, when the time comes to elect church leaders, these difficulties suddenly cease to exist, and they meticulously dress themselves up for the occasion and come to participate in the election. They haven’t shown up for a long time, but upon hearing the great news of the church election, they rush over eagerly. What are they coming for? They are coming for the election, for the position of church leader, for this “official position.” Such people are particularly shrewd in their actions. Fearing that others will suspect they want to become a church leader, they avoid mentioning the election and only focus on fellowshipping their understandings and experiences to gain people’s admiration. They also publicly eat and drink God’s words, lead everyone to fellowship on God’s words, and share their own experiential testimony. In actuality, they generally rarely participate in church life and seldom fellowship the truth, nor are they able to speak about any experiential understandings. However, as the election approaches, they become very different. They actively participate in church life and are eager to pray, sing hymns, and fellowship, appearing especially driven and proactive and standing out prominently. After gatherings, they look for opportunities to chat about family matters with the brothers and sisters and build connections. When they see a church leader, they say, “You aren’t looking too good these days. I have some dates at home; let me bring you some.” When they see a certain sister, they say, “I heard your family is having financial difficulties. Do you need any help? I can give you some clothes.” They are particularly active at every gathering, very different from before. In the past, they would occasionally show up just to check in, and no matter who called them to a gathering, they would excuse themselves by saying they were busy. But during the election period, they suddenly pop up and participate in every gathering without missing one. At each gathering, the brothers and sisters fellowship about matters and principles related to the election, and of course, they also get involved. During this period, they make every effort to build good relationships with the brothers and sisters, striving to draw in a portion of them. They even make multiple offerings in front of the brothers and sisters, causing most people to feel astonished, thinking, “They have believed in God for so long, but we have never seen them make offerings before. Why are they so generous this time? Have they really changed for the better and turned themselves around?” Some foolish and ignorant people who cannot assess matters think that this person has indeed changed for the better, that they had misjudged this person before, and they unknowingly develop a favorable impression of them in their hearts, thinking, “This person’s family is well-off; they have connections and access to ways of getting things done. If they become a church leader, they can get many things done for the church. Wouldn’t this provide help to our church in preaching the gospel and hosting some brothers and sisters who are being hunted and have difficulties? If they can remain this active, it would be great, but I’m not sure whether they can keep it up or whether they’d be willing to be our church leader.” Haven’t some people been misled and fooled? Everything this person has been doing is starting to bear fruit, isn’t it? The pieces are falling into place and results are soon to come. Isn’t this what they want? (Yes.) Additionally, they give two articles of clothing to one person, a basket of vegetables to another, and some health supplements to yet another person, making sure everyone is cared for. This makes people think, “If this person became a church leader, wouldn’t they make a great shepherd? Aren’t they someone that most people want to rely on?” Isn’t the timing now ripe? Won’t the brothers and sisters easily choose someone like this? This person is educated, articulate, and has a certain status in society. If the church faces arrests, they can shield the brothers and sisters. If any of the brothers’ and sisters’ families have difficulties, they can extend a helping hand, and they can also assist with church work when more hands are needed. However, there is one thing that most people are uncertain about: “They didn’t use to pursue the truth, and seldom attended gatherings for a long time. But now, when it’s time for an election, they hastily attend a few gatherings. If they are elected as a leader, will they understand the truth? If they don’t understand the truth and can only protect these people or provide some benefits to them, can they help people understand the truth? Can they bring people before God? This is questionable.” Some have doubts in their hearts, while others have already been influenced and bought over by this person’s benefits. Isn’t this situation very dangerous? A single vote could make the difference in them being elected. Regardless of the final election result, are the actions and behaviors of such people proper? (No.) At the most opportune moments, they give alms, make offerings, and assist the brothers and sisters in resolving some real difficulties. When some brothers and sisters move house, they provide transportation, and when some of the brothers’ and sisters’ families are short of money, they lend them some. When some lack a phone, they buy them one, and when some don’t have a computer, they give them their own. … They do these things at the most opportune moments, the most critical junctures. What kind of behavior is this? Isn’t doing these things with the intention of competing for leadership, with unmentionable secrets and purposes, manipulating and sabotaging elections? (Yes.) They don’t come earlier or later, but rather show up precisely at the time of the leadership election. Aren’t they harboring unmentionable secrets? This couldn’t be more obvious; they must be harboring unmentionable secrets. It’s not that they had a sudden pang of conscience and want to do some good deeds; their goal is to run for church leadership, to become the person in charge of the church, to manipulate the church and God’s chosen people. Do they want to manipulate these people so that they can truly do things for them? (No.) So what do they want to do? They want to control God’s chosen people, control the church, and carve out a position in the church where they can act as an official and call the shots. Don’t these unusual methods and practices count as manipulating and sabotaging elections? (Yes.)
During church elections, some people who fear they won’t get enough votes cast a vote for themselves. Doesn’t this sound ludicrous and strange? What is the nature of someone casting a vote for themselves? Is it a manifestation of lacking confidence, of shamelessness, or of excessive ambition? It’s all of these. They fear not being elected, so they have no other choice but to vote for themselves—this is a lack of confidence. They don’t have what it takes but still want to be a leader; fearing others won’t vote for them, they vote for themselves. Isn’t this shamelessness? Furthermore, their excessive ambition clouds their judgment to the point where they toss pride out the window and become devoid of integrity and dignity: “If you don’t vote for me, I won’t have it; I must be a church leader. If I can’t become a leader, I won’t believe in God anymore!” They insist on being a leader, on acting as an official, only feeling at ease and content in life when they have status—what tremendous ambitions and desires they have! They cherish status too much, believing in God just to become a leader. What’s so great about being a leader? If they didn’t value the benefits of status and didn’t enjoy all the preferential treatment it brings, would they still covet this position? Would they still vote for themselves? Would their ambitions and desires still be so great? Would they still cherish status so much? No, they wouldn’t. Such people always want to tamper with and put effort into elections, resorting to any underhanded deeds. Even though they themselves feel that acting in such a way is disgraceful, not open or aboveboard, and somewhat degrading, after some consideration, they think, “Whatever, what’s important is getting elected as leader!” This is shamelessness. They even want to imitate the debate methods used in the elections of democratic countries, where candidates expose each other’s faults, pass judgment on and attack each other, and engage in verbal spats, applying these tactics to the church’s elections—isn’t this a grievous error? Isn’t this the wrong arena for such tactics? If you come to the church to engage in these crooked and nefarious actions and try to manipulate and sabotage elections, I tell you, you’ve chosen the wrong place to do so! This is God’s house, not society; everyone who manipulates and sabotages elections will be condemned, to a person. In the church, no matter what reasons, excuses, or methods are used in an attempt to manipulate and sabotage elections, they are untenable, and this constitutes an evil deed—it is forever an evil deed! All who attempt to manipulate and sabotage elections are condemned. Such people are not recognized as members of God’s house or as brothers and sisters, and are instead labeled as servants of Satan. What kind of things do servants of Satan do? They specialize in doing all manner of things that disrupt and disturb God’s work and the normal order of the church. Those who manipulate and sabotage elections are playing these negative roles, doing the things that servants of Satan do. Whatever work the church undertakes, these people rise up to sabotage and destroy it, disregarding the work arrangements and regulations of God’s house, disregarding God’s administrative decrees, and even more so disregarding God. They attempt to do whatever they want in God’s house, manipulating various church affairs, and even more so manipulating church members, going so far as to manipulate and sabotage church elections. Through what means do they attempt to manipulate church personnel? They look for opportunities to manipulate and sabotage church elections. Once an election has been manipulated and sabotaged by these servants of Satan, the election has failed. If these servants of Satan have their way and become church leaders, is the election result correct or incorrect? It’s incorrect, of course. A do-over election should be held through fellowshipping the truth and summarizing lessons learned.
How should do-over election be practiced? (The election results should be overturned and another election should be held.) This is one way. The inside information about how this election was manipulated by evil people should be made open and public so that everyone knows what the election process was like and how the results were produced. After this inside information becomes known, the election results should be negated, and a do-over election should be held. Such an election must not be approved by a majority of God’s chosen people; and it doesn’t matter who was elected—the results cannot be accepted. Under normal circumstances, through fellowshipping on the truth and exposing the inside story, the election results can be denied, and a do-over election can be held. But sometimes, in certain special circumstances, even if a small portion of people find out that the election results were manipulated by servants of Satan and that the elected person absolutely cannot do the work and is just a puppet, because the majority in the church are misled by the evil people and still stand on the side of the servants of Satan while only a minority have some discernment and know the inside information—and no one believes this minority or listens to them when they speak up—they are isolated and powerless, and fundamentally lack the strength to reverse the situation. In such circumstances, you may want to expose the inside story about the manipulation of the election, but it’s not easy to understand the situation clearly. In that case, besides reporting it to the upper-level leaders and workers, what else can you do? If you continue to live church life, you will be excluded. Attending gatherings at another church doesn’t seem appropriate, as the people there cannot just host a stranger at random. This truly puts you in a dilemma! You see that the elected church leader has bad humanity, is a devil, and isn’t someone who should have been elected, so you get angry just seeing them. Going to gatherings makes you feel uncomfortable, but not going is not an option. If you don’t go, and cut off your relationship with the church, you will lose your church life, which is not something you can do. So is there a good solution to this problem? This requires wisdom. What would be the consequence if you rashly expose them? Those people might band together to suppress you, drive you away, or if things really didn’t go well, they might even clear you out, making you a victim of injustice. This is the most likely consequence. So what is the best solution? (Join forces with some brothers and sisters who have discernment and collect all the evidence of these people’s evil deeds of covertly manipulating the election. Report it to the upper-level leaders and workers, and also quickly fellowship the truth with the misled brothers and sisters to bring them back.) Is this considered a good solution? Is it okay to do such things hastily? What is the consequence of being hasty? (It makes it easy to inadvertently alert the enemy.) When you encounter matters like this, are you afraid or nervous? Should you be afraid or nervous? (No.) Theoretically, you shouldn’t be afraid—this is what your rationality tells you. But how is it for people in reality? What’s most crucial is whether people understand the truth. If people don’t understand the truth and only have their resolve, they will still be afraid inside. When you are afraid, is it easy to achieve results no matter what you do or how you do it? (No.) When you are afraid, what kind of state are you in? You fear these people’s power, fear that they will find out you have discerned them and are guarded against them, and fear that they will suppress and exclude you when they see you are not on their side, ultimately clearing you out of the church. You will have these concerns in your heart. When you have such concerns, can you have wisdom, courage, and the means to interact with these people, solve the problems they caused, or unmask their evil deeds so that the brothers and sisters have discernment and are not misled? What is the most appropriate way to act? When you are afraid, are you not in a weak condition? First of all, you are weak and passive. For one thing, you lack strong faith in God, and for another, you think, “So, these evil people have succeeded. How is it that I’m the only one discerning this matter now? Do others have any discernment? If I tell others about the true situation, will they believe me? If they don’t believe me, will they expose me? If they all band together to deal with me, and I am alone and powerless, will those evil people find all sorts of excuses to clear me out?” Will you not have such concerns? When you have these concerns, how can you deal with those people? How can you interact with them in the most fitting and wisest way? At this time, do you not have no direction or path to follow? To put it precisely, when you are at your most afraid and weakest, you are simply unable to contend with them or to interact with them and handle the problems they caused. So what is the best approach for you at this time? Is it to take the initiative and strike first, confronting them and exposing their evil deeds to protect yourself? Is this method appropriate? (No.) Why is it not appropriate? Because you haven’t thought through how to act, you cannot see through to their essence, and you don’t know how to expose them, let alone whether those who are misled can accept the truth and reverse course. You don’t know any of these various things, and you are unclear on what the most beneficial and effective solution for you is. Even though you have yet to reach a certain level of negativity, your current condition is at least one of weakness and dread, and internally you have many concerns. Whether these concerns are legitimate or caused by your weakness and dread, in short, these are facts. When these facts arise, the best solution is to learn to wait and do nothing. What does it mean to do nothing? It means not hastening to expose the true situation about the election to those who’ve been deluded, and not rushing to oppose the newly elected church leaders or the group of people who manipulated and sabotaged the election. Do not expose them; at this time, you must learn to wait. Some people say, “Waiting is so passive; how long do I have to wait?” It doesn’t require waiting for too long. While you wait, come before God to pray, read God’s words, and seek the truth. In such circumstances, when you are at your most afraid and weakest, your prayers are the most genuine and sincere. You need God to guide and protect you; you need to rely on God. As you pray, your dread will diminish little by little until it’s gone. When your dread is gone, won’t you also be less weak? (Yes.) You will have fewer and fewer concerns, too. These dreads, weaknesses, and concerns do not disappear out of thin air; rather, during this process of change, you will gradually come to understand certain things. What things will you come to understand? For one thing, you will know how to deal with these people, whom to expose first, and how to speak and act in a way that benefits the work of God’s house. Additionally, you will know the nature of these people’s behavior. How do you come to understand these things? It is by seeking the truth during your waiting process that you gradually come to understand them. When you see this clearly, you will naturally ponder how you ought to apply wisdom, whom it is appropriate to talk to, and how to speak in a way that moves them, that lets them know the facts about evil people manipulating the election, and that enables them to reverse course, to discern the true faces of those who manipulated and sabotaged the election, and to discern what kind of people the so-called elected leaders actually are. You will have this kind of wisdom, and your actions will also be methodical. So how do these positive gains come about? They are all bestowed upon you by God during your waiting process. Some of them come about because of the work and the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, and some are what God lets you see and understand in His words. God’s words say not to fight battles unprepared. What does this mean? It means that whether you are fighting against Satan or exposing the evil deeds of Satan’s servants, however you do battle with Satan, you must be strong yourself, understand the truth principles, and be able to see through the essence and evil deeds of Satan and the evil people and then expose them. Only by doing so will you achieve good results in the end. Once you understand these things, won’t your dreads, weaknesses, and concerns become less intense and less apparent? You will no longer feel so afraid. These things you feel will gradually change; you will find that you are not as weak as you were when the situation first arose. Instead, you will feel somewhat stronger and more self-assured than before, and you will know what to do. At this point, pray to God again and ask Him to prepare the right opportunity, and then take action. Report the situation to the upper-level leaders and workers while also fellowship with those who have good humanity and sincerely believe in God but were deluded and misled because they did not understand the truth, exposing the inside information about evil people manipulating the election to them. Once you’ve won over one or two of these people, your dread will basically disappear. You will realize that all of this cannot be done by relying on human strength, much less by relying on impetuousness; you cannot rely on momentary impulse or anger, or on a temporary, so-called sense of justice—these are all useless. God will prepare the right time for you and will enlighten you on what to say, and based on what you understand, He will guide you step by step, giving you a path to follow. From at first being weak and fearful to seeking and understanding the principles and the path—during this period, you can still interact with these evil people normally. During normal interactions, people’s minds are not vacant; they have their own thoughts. While you are seeking and praying, you observe these people. What do you observe? You look at just what kind of path they are taking and what their essence truly is. If what they say is correct and aligns with the principles of the church’s work, you can listen to them; if what they say disrupts and disturbs the church’s work, you can find an excuse to not listen or to stall for time, using a wise way of interacting with them “amicably” without alerting them. While “amicably” interacting with them, you collect evidence of their evil deeds, discerning them based on their various actions and fallacies that violate the truth principles and further confirming that these people are servants of Satan. Practicing in this way allows you to not be constrained by them while also fulfilling your responsibility and duty—this is what a wise person does. Only those with humanity, wisdom, and a love for the truth can walk the right path. For people without wisdom who act recklessly and crudely, always relying on impetuousness and impulse no matter what they are doing or what circumstances they are facing, their actions often lead to poor results. Such people not only disrupt and disturb the work of the church but also bring a lot of unnecessary troubles and vexations upon themselves. Wise people, meanwhile, are different. In whatever they do, they wait, observe, and seek, waiting for the right time, for God’s arrangements and orchestration. During the waiting period, they are able to seek God’s intentions, eat and drink God’s words with purpose, more accurately grasp the principles of the truth, and act according to God’s intentions. They use God’s words and the truth to fight a good fight and testify for God, rather than battling with people or engaging in verbal spats out of impetuousness.
When it comes to evil people manipulating and sabotaging elections, what’s most important is not whether you can see through these people or how you plan to expose them; it is to report the situation upward in a timely manner. You should use wisdom to contend with them, wait for God’s timing, seek God’s intentions, and seek the truth principles, while not holding up your duty. What is the ultimate result of doing this? You fulfill your responsibility and duty. By reporting the situation upward and seeking a solution, not only is the problem resolved, but you also gain insight, increase your discernment and wisdom, grow in stature, and strengthen your faith in God. People gain so much from experiencing a confrontation with Satan and it is greatly advantageous to them. Conversely, suppose someone acts out of impetuousness and impulse, getting into an intense fight with these people and arguing with them face-to-face, saying, “You are manipulating and sabotaging the election. Although you wield great power, I won’t yield to you, and I’m not afraid of you!” The result of this approach is being kicked out of the church, leaving them to cry and suffer at home for months; but still they do not understand God’s intentions: “Why did I end up in this mess? Do You not want me, God? Do You not care about me?” For months, they miss out on new sermons and hymns, are unaware of what work the church is undertaking, are unable to do their duties, and become completely isolated, falling utterly into darkness. Every day, aside from crying, all they do is worry. They don’t learn to pray to God or eat and drink His relevant words in this environment, much less do they learn to seek the truth principles in complex situations; they do not grow in wisdom at all. After crying for a few months, finally, one day, someone brings them back to the church and asks them to share their experience during this period, but they only tearfully complain: “I’ve been so wronged! I didn’t disturb the church. I’m not an evil person; I was framed by evil people.” When asked, “What lessons did you learn during this time? Did you gain anything?” they reply, “What could I gain? They isolated me, took away the books of God’s words and hymnals, and I couldn’t listen to any sermons. All I could do was talk about faith and occasionally sing a few hymns I remembered. I didn’t gain anything. Thankfully, God prepared a time to bring me back; otherwise, I was planning to go out and do business to earn money, since there was no hope for salvation anyway. God didn’t want me anymore, and I couldn’t continue believing. My heart was completely darkened.” In the end, they add, “God’s sheep will never be abandoned by God,” drawing this conclusion. Experiencing such a significant and special event and gaining so little—isn’t this a bit pathetic? Isn’t it inappropriate? Faced with such a major situation, they did not learn any lessons and did not increase their wisdom or faith; although they still believe in God in their heart, they were tormented by Satans, devils, and antichrists to the point they almost stopped believing. Can they still testify for God? Isn’t this person a useless coward? What use is crying at home? Even if they cry until they go blind, will it help? Can it solve the problem with the antichrists? The evil people have succeeded, and in the end, all this person has is the saying, “God’s sheep will never be abandoned by God,” without gaining anything else. They don’t have wisdom, they don’t have a course of action, and they don’t know to seek God according to the path given by God, to come before God to take up God’s words and the truth to fight against Satan. That bit of doctrine they typically spout does them no good; when it comes to facing such matters, apart from crying, all they do is feel wronged and complain—this is a useless coward. Useless cowards often have several manifestations, which are also their major characteristics. First, they cry. Second, they feel wronged. Third, they complain in their hearts. In their hearts, they also say, “Where are You, God? Why don’t You care about me? I have been terribly harmed by Satan, I can’t go on living. Please save me quickly!” God says, “You are a useless coward, a waste wrapped in human skin. If you believe in God, what are you afraid of? What is there to fear about Satan?” No matter what conspiracies and schemes Satan uses when it acts, we are not afraid. We have God, we have the truth. God will give us wisdom. God is sovereign over everything; everything is under God’s orchestration. What are you afraid of? Crying just shows you are cowardly and inept; you are a piece of trash, a waste of air! Crying means you are compromising with Satan and begging for mercy from Satan. Does God like such useless cowards? (No.) God sees you as a useless coward, a dolt, a piece of trash, with no testimony and no wisdom at all. What became of the truth you understood? Haven’t you heard enough about the manifestations of antichrists and Satan that God exposes? Don’t you understand or see through these things? Don’t you know that they are Satans? If you know they are Satans, what are you afraid of? Why don’t you fear and dread God? Are you not afraid of offending God by fearing Satan? Isn’t that an act of wickedness? When such situations occur, you are afraid and have no solution, no wisdom or countermeasures at all. What have you gained from listening to sermons all these years? Has it all been in vain? Can such useless cowards stand firm in their testimony? (No.) When it comes to situations where Satans and evil people manipulate and sabotage elections, whether you are alone and powerless or do indeed have a few brothers and sisters who are of one mind with you, do not rush into action. First, learn to wait. Second, learn to seek. During the period of waiting and seeking, do not abandon your duty. What does waiting mean? It means waiting for God to prepare the right time and opportunity. And what should you seek? Seek the principles and path you should practice in believing in and following God; seek how to act so as to be in alignment with God’s intentions, and how to act so as to fight against Satan and the forces of antichrists, ultimately overcoming Satan’s forces to become an overcomer. If you are alone, you must pray to God more, wait, and seek. If there are two or three other people who are of one mind with you, you can fellowship, pray, wait, and seek together. When God has prepared a suitable time, ask God for strength and wisdom, so that everything you do and every word you say is appropriate. In doing so, for one thing, you fulfill your duty as a created being, and for another, you can also strongly and effectively expose Satan, thoroughly exposing and foiling the conspiracies of Satan’s servants and the antichrists. Is this appropriate? These methods, ways, paths, and principles have been told to you, so how you apply them depends on you. Is this path clear enough? (Yes.) Then, when you encounter such matters, practice according to this principle. This is easy to achieve.
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